1 Griffith 20th 22nd March 2 Sea Lake 5th 7th June 3 Goondiwindi 7th 9th August 4 Millicent 25th 27th September 0.5 Wildcard Event
Always looking to make improvements the series committee decided to introduce a wildcard event to the ARB Series for 2015. This allows competitors registered with the series to nominate a wildcard event of their choice from the list of approved events below.
There are a few extra rules to go along with this;-
Nomination of the Wildcard event must be completed prior to the close of entries of your chosen wildcard event or round one of the ARB Series, whichever occurs first. Therefor close of entries for Griffith in March or Portland King Of The Dunes in February. No new nominations will be accepted after Griffith close of entries.
The wildcard event must be run prior to the start of the last ARB Series event. This gives us time to tally the points in time for the gala presentation evening. This makes Warialda the last Wildcard option to ARB Series competitors.
You will be awarded half the points normally available at an ARB Series event, based on your position relevant to the field. In the case of a dual status event, results will be based on the State Championship component only.
If a nominated Wildcard event is cancelled or dropped below State Championship level the competitor may, within one week of the cancellation or downgrading, apply for a replacement event.
Portland King Of The Dunes Vic Mildura Vic Finke Desert Race NT Off Road Masters SA Waikerie Riverland Enduro SA Coffs Coast 400 NSW Warialda NSW Perenjori 300 WA Kalgoorlie 400 WA Bencubbin 300 WA Mogumber 240 WA Three Springs WA Milbrodale Mountain Classic NSW Esk QLD
I think they are on holidays . wait till they get back.
It is an interesting concept and I think that it would suit lots of competitors who are in two minds on some events.
Come on everyone, what are your thoughts.
Haha yeah possibly everyone is having a break from their computers! Thanks for your thoughts, its good to be able to take both positive and negative feedback back to the committee for discussion. This forum and Facebook seem to be the best place to receive the feedback, if any.
danny I love the ARB Series I think 4 races is great I don't like the wildcard that means you are making me do a extra race for the point that I mite need at the end of the year.
I don't know about the other states but 2 of the NSW races are the week after and week before ARB rounds and the other, Coffs, is 2 weeks before Millicent so with not having 2 cars it doesn't leave any prep time between races when you take into account travel time. But it would help anyone that wants to do the AORC championship and ARB series and wants to do Finke and miss Sea Lake as they still get some points so that might mean more cars with some people able to do both series
Ok, lets first remember how the ARB series came about. Without beating around the bush it was because some very well attended events got crapped on & got dropped as AORC rounds. That said I can't for the life of me understand why you would reward people for not going to the event that has had the best entry numbers in modern times (Sea Lake) so as they can compete in what can only be described as an opposition event (Finke). By any stretch Sea Lake is the flagship event of the ARB series, why would you want to encourage people not to do it yet still get points for that weekend. To me it seems like a TV station advertising programs that are on a rival network.
If you want to go to Finke on the Queens birthday weekend, that's fine but you shouldn't be able to get ARB points for competing at a rival event. If I can put it this way, it doesn't look like you are showing a lot of loyalty to the SLORC.
I hear your point Darryl, just so you know the sea lake committee was present at the meeting where this idea was put forward and also voted to go ahead with it. The idea behind it was so that some people could use the opportunity to attened an event of their choosing closer to home and gain some points towards the series as not everyone can make all the rounds. Also alot of people will do an event outside of the ARB Series and the AORC, this will hopefully help boost competitor numbers at eligble events.
Thanks for the feedback it is all being taken on board.
In every other case I understand. There is only one weekend where there are two events that clash. If I was a sponsor of the ARB series I would be wanting as many of the top cars at the ARB event. If I compete at Sea Lake I have to (quite rightly) display stickers of the event sponsors, under this system I can compete at a different event on that same day but get points for the ARB event without recognising the ARB sponsors contribution.
As for the other events I see what you are attempting to achieve & support it. We all want to see the best cars possible at Sea Lake & it defies all logic to me why you would want to give an opposition (on the day) event an opportunity to snare the top cars. I have no doubt that allowing competitors to get ARB series points at Finke will detract from the quality of the field at Sea Lake. I don't get why you would want to do that to your series flagship event.
As a retired competitor that only ever run Griffthi and did not compete in the ARB series the point scoring for these wildcard events probably wants looking at.I know NSW has changed their pointscore system and you will now get points on outright and class on your race position as apposed to last year where you recieved points as where you finished in relation to state competitors only,that is you could be the only NSW competitor to finish Griffith and you would recieve max points for outright and class.
Not knowing how the other states are allocating points I think if any one is using the old NSW system a smart operator could pick up a bucket load of points from a state event.I don't know why ARB reverted to the state point system in some events?
Points will be allocated as per the ARB series standing regs not individual state or event point scores, also I think that the wildcard round is a good idea, if you are serious about winning your class or outright for the ARB series you'll be at Sea Lake, my thoughts are that if you have a bad result at any of the four ARB rounds at least you can recover some points at another event, maybe it's not perfect but it's something different and worth a try
Is there a reason why they are not running a 5 round series? is this idea diluting the ARB series?wouldn't it be better to run a complete series under the ARB series banner rather than having it seems a tack on event.
Personally i would like to see a 5 round series with the ability to drop a round that way one bad event wouldn't ruin your chance for the whole series.
When considering the proposal to add a Wildcard event to the ARB Series at the meeting in December all the foundation events were represented and the benefits that we perceived it would provide series competitors and the sport were;
The opportunity to compete at an event that would require less travel therefore reducing cost.
Competitors could select a favourite event that they want to do.
Less impact to the series for competitors choosing to go to Finke.
There is no downside to selected wildcard events however it is a good opportunity for the ARB Series to give back to other off road events. Take Portland as an example, 2014 had 21 entries with 11 doing 75% race distance. 11th placed competitor would pick up 22.5 outright points. I am sure some would work out this is a good opportunity to get some good points.
The ARB Series committee has been forward thinking and innovative from its inception, establishing contingency support for competitors, real prizes for series outright and class place getters at presentation dinner, running a pit/paddock where possible to allow family friendly camping & participation, safe transportation and supply of various fuels at all ARB rounds, TV coverage of a broader sample of competitors at events and I am sure others that slip my mind. We are committed to providing all competitors and their families with the most enjoyable racing experience possible regardless of how successful their race is.
Is there a reason why they are not running a 5 round series? is this idea diluting the ARB series?wouldn't it be better to run a complete series under the ARB series banner rather than having it seems a tack on event. Personally i would like to see a 5 round series with the ability to drop a round that way one bad event wouldn't ruin your chance for the whole series.
We may run a 5th round in the future but I dont think the wildcard event will dilute the series but could enhance it. We will be monitoring the impact and consider for 2016. Having the ability to drop a round may benefit some competitors but has the potential to hurt more remote events. The series and points have been set up to reward consistency and reliability rather than outright speed and dropping a bad round goes against this philosophy.
In every other case I understand. There is only one weekend where there are two events that clash. If I was a sponsor of the ARB series I would be wanting as many of the top cars at the ARB event. If I compete at Sea Lake I have to (quite rightly) display stickers of the event sponsors, under this system I can compete at a different event on that same day but get points for the ARB event without recognising the ARB sponsors contribution.
As for the other events I see what you are attempting to achieve & support it. We all want to see the best cars possible at Sea Lake & it defies all logic to me why you would want to give an opposition (on the day) event an opportunity to snare the top cars. I have no doubt that allowing competitors to get ARB series points at Finke will detract from the quality of the field at Sea Lake. I don't get why you would want to do that to your series flagship event.
Competitors who chose to go to Finke will go regardless of this wildcard event arrangement. There is no encouragement to go there as points will be hard to accrue for several reasons. Anything less than a finish will only give you 2.5 points and there will be around 100 competitors compared with less than 50 at most other events. Both Sea Lake and key ARB personnel were involved with the decision.
